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Apart from being in conformity with a number of written or tacit ethical guidelines, business communication also must comply with and is bound by a variety of laws and regulations, including the following areas: promotional communication, contracts, employment communication, intellectual property, financial reporting and many other.

Promotional communication. Businesses, and their marketing departments in particular, are not only morally obliged to ensure advertising that is honest, decent and truthful – they are also legally bound to do so. There are many laws that regulate this area addressing such issues as false and deceptive advertising, misleading or inaccurate labeling, as well as what many legal translation workers call the “bait-and-switch” tactics in which merchants advertise products or services they do not have in stock at a low price, so that they can sell their substitute products, usually at a higher price.

Although contract law varies widely in the various jurisdictions, in general we can broadly define a contract as a promise between two parties, in which one of the parties extends an “offer” to do or not to do something specified. To have an effective contract, the other party needs to “accept” it. The third element required is the “consideration” – what is given in return. The workers from a Houston Chinese Translation Services Agency add, that we enter into contracts at least once every single day –from buying products in the shop and getting a taxi to applying for a loan, renting a property.

Employment. The relationships between employers and potential or current employees are governed by a great number of laws and regulations. For example, job descriptions must be written in such a way so that they do not discriminate people in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age or disability.

Intellectual property includes inventions, patents, copyrighted materials, trade secrets, in short, a wide range of creations of the mind. Nowadays when it is so easy to copy or retransmit electronic files, our colleagues from a Milwaukee French Translation services Agency remind us, that the protection of intellectual property is a primary concern.

Ethics refers to recommended standards of conduct that prescribe behavior within a society. Put another way, ethical principles define what is right, good or proper. The experts from a TMA Certified Diploma Translation Agency define ethics as “to be aware of what is the right thing to do.” As a business communicator, you have the responsibility to decide not only what you need to say, but also the consequences of saying it.

Ethical behavior is a concern and duty of every organization. However, whatever an organization does, has an impact on its natural and social environment. For this reason, communication efforts are subjected to strict scrutiny from the company’s stakeholders: legislators, investors, consumer groups, the local community, labor organizations, and all other parties that can be affected by the activities of the organization.

The aforementioned Milwaukee Spanish translation workers believe that ethical communication avoids withholding crucial information, conveys the point without offending the audience and passes true and accurate information. In contrast, unethical communication purposefully distorts the truth or manipulate audiences in a variety of ways: by omitting essential information, misrepresenting numbers (unethical manipulation of statistics and other data), distorting visuals (making a product look bigger or changing the scale of graphs), failing to respect privacy, confidentiality or information security needs.
As the experts from a San Jose Translation Services company remind, unethical communication is not always obvious and overt. Moreover, deciding what is ethical can be a considerable challenge in some business situations. In some cases, ethical choices are clear, but in others, the right path is not always easy to identify. True ethical communication is based on perception – if a person or a group of people interpret some actions or words to be discriminatory or offensive, whatever the intention of the communicator is, the communication may be considered unethical.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype… – are all these the new tools of productivity or the new distractions?In the opinion of the experts from The Marketing Analysts Translation Services Company, a Houston Chinese Translation Agency, they are key parts of the so-called the “information technology paradox,” in which such information tools can waste as much time as they save, if not more.According to a recent Gallup poll, the average employee uses office computers for non-business related activity for at least 75 minutes daily. This, undoubtedly results in productivity losses and may rise legal issues from the inappropriate use of some websites. For instance, non-job related web surfing not only wastes valuable company time and distracts employees from work responsibilities but can also expose employers to lawsuits for sexual harassment if inappropriate images are transmitted around the organization. Employees’ blogs can also be a source of unconscious disclosure of sensitive or confidential information or can damage an organization’s reputation or distort the image an organization would like to impose on the general public. That is why, many employers are so concerned about misusing technological tools, that they install software that limits Internet access during working hours to restrict the use of the internet and corporate e-mail services by their employees.

The speed and simplicity of technological tools can be not only a great advantage, but also a serious weakness: it is so easy and tempting nowadays to send many, often unnecessary or unclear (you can always send another) messages and to subscribe to too many blog feeds and other information sources. The professionals from one of the leading Dallas Certified Translation Services Company believe that this not only wastes valuable company time, but may also cause an information overload which can significantly affect the employee’s ability to focus on their work.That is why The Marketing Analysts Washington D.C. Translation Servicesprofessionals advice managers to developing clear policies that are enforced evenly for all employees and to guide their employees in productive use of information tools.

Once information passes through the communication channel and is received by the target audience, it encounters an entirely new spectrum of challenges. Realizing the ways the target audience will acquire, decode, and react to the information you communicate will assist Spanish translation workers and interpreters in developing more powerful communications.

How Audiences Acquire Information
When a member of the target audience receives your message, three events had to take place:

1. The audience member had to perceive that a message was being transmitted,
2. The audience member had to choose the message from all other messages vying for attention
3. The audience member had to recognize that this was a real message (as in contrast to accidental, useless sounds).

Listeners in the business world today are like pedestrians that take the subway and walk down busy streets to get to work. They are overwhelmed with the amount of information and sounds that they can ignore or focus attention on. Throughout the next set of blog entries, Seattle Japanese translation workers will discover a number of strategies for creating messages that draw attention. Generally speaking, you should follow these guidelines to improve your likelihood of success:

Take into account your target audience’s needs, desires and presumptions. Provide communications through the media and channels that your target audience is expecting. If co-workers are used to receiving conference announcements sent by email then you shouldn’t suddenly switch to posting announcements in the breakroom or on a company intranet site without informing the intended recipients.

Ensure simplicity. Regardless of whether the target audience needs to hear what you are going to communicate, it’s likely that they will never be exposed to your communication if you make it difficult for them to receive. For instance, poorly designed websites with dark backgrounds and light or bright text and confusing navigation can obstruct your communication from being received by your target audience.

Stress understanding and expertise. Certified translation workers should use` terms, images, and concepts that are utilized by your target audience. For instance, almost all people who visit your firm’s website now count on finding information concerning the business on an “about us” page.

Scientists nowadays are concerned that misuse or overuse of communication technology can lead to information overload. The term “information overload” (also known as “infobesity”) was first introduced by Berthram Gross in his book “The Managing of Organizations” (1964) but it was in fact popularized by Alvin Tofler in his best-seller “Future Sock” (1970).

Decision makers have a given, fairly limited, processing capacity so if they receive more information than they can effectively process, it is likely to experience difficulty in discriminating between the useful and the useless information, in understanding an issue or making a decision. This will inevitably result in reduced quality of decision making, lower productivity, and often in high levels of employee stress both on the job and at home.

Even though there is not a real solution how to stop information overload, the professionals from a San Jose Certified Translation Services mention a few things that can be done to possibly reduce it.

As a recipient, you often have some level of control over the number and types of messages you receive. For example, most e-mail systems usually offer good filtering and tagging options that can automatically sort incoming messages based on preset criteria. So using this feature you can isolate high-priority messages that deserve your attention and disregard or spend less time on the information that is not important. Another advice, added by the professionals from a Miami German Translation Services is, to spend less time on interrupting devices such as smartphones or tablets and to be wary of subscribing to too many blog feeds, Twitter follows, and other sources of recurring messages.

It is bad to undercommunicate nowadays, but sending unnecessary messages or sending a message to the wrong people is almost as bad. As a sender, you can help reduce information overload by making sure you don’t send unnecessary messages. Moreover, if you send messages that are not urgent or crucial, it is good to let people know this, to give them the option to prioritize. Moreover, since most communication systems let you mark messages as urgent, the advice of the Marketing Analysts French Translation Services in Washington D.C. is to use this feature only when it is truly needed. Sending too many messages marked as “urgent” that do not really need immediate attention and actions, will lead to annoyance and anxiety.

In conclusion, we may say that information overload is an increasing problem nowadays, and that those that learn how to deal with it effectively will have a major advantage in the next few years.

Undoubtedly we are living in a “technologically civilized” society and each and every piece of work we do is technology dependent. However, we should always remember that technology is simply a tool, a means by which you can accomplish certain tasks. Even as we write this, a new device hits the market. And though it seems that everything changes, in fact not everything changes. It is the means we actually use to communicate that change almost daily, but communication itself has not changed. Of course, as new technology emerges, there are new manners associated with these changes. However, the standards of communication, the manners associated with the ways we communicate with each other continue to be the key to how effective our communication is.

Technology is not a replacement for people; it just enhances and facilitates their activities. As one Houston Chinese Translation Services professional says: “My spell checker can run all my words through a dictionary but it does not know whether I have used the correct words and it cannot craft powerful sentences to present the sense I want to express.” In terms of communication we can paraphrase it in such a way – Gadgets can’t think for you or communicate for you, and if you lack some essential skills, they can’t fill in the gaps.

The aforementioned certified translator does not deny, that communication technology undoubtedly has a number of advantages in an organization: it speeds the sending of information, improves organizational communication, influences the way people interact, supports open discussions, provides a voice for those who normally would not speak up in groups, and more. However, we should also mention that is quite expensive and definitely – not very safe and often it is a poor substitute for face-to-face communication.

To summarize, we can say that technology is an aid to interpersonal communication, not a replacement for it.While this might sound obvious, it is easy to get caught up in the “gee whiz” factor, especially when new technologies first appear. In this light, the advice of one French translation service is: “No matter how exotic or cutting edge it may be, remember that technology has value only if it helps deliver the right information to the right people at the right time.Don’t rely too much on technologyor let it overwhelm thecommunication process.”

Although you have been communicating more or less successfully all your life, business communication is often quite different from everyday communication in social or home environment. Business communication nowadays increasingly requires a high level of skill and attention: the globalization of business necessitates interaction between individuals from different countries, languages and cultural attitudes. It has also resulted in the increase in workforce diversity, the higher value of business information, and the growing importance of teamwork.

The Globalization of Business and the Increase in Workforce Diversity
Business Communication is essential in the workplace; yet diversity in the workplace and in the workforce may make a challenge. Today’s businesses increasingly reach across international borders, branch into different parts of the world, forge relationships with cross-border partners, access consumer markets in new territories. And if in the 60s and 70s the term diversity usually meant employee differences based on race, sex, color, national origin and religion, today it also includes additional employee characteristics, mainly as a result of globalization and generation diversity. Successful companies increasingly realize that a diverse workforce can yield a significant competitive advantage. But, as The Marketing Analysts Translation Services professionals formulate it: they also realize that managing a diverse workforce calls for knowledge of differences and flexibility in communication.

The Higher Value of Business Information
Today we live in times of rapidly increasing value of business information. With the growth in global competition for talent, customers, and resources, the importance of information has gone up, too. Even companies not traditionally associated with the so-called Information Age often seek to hire at all organizational levels, workers, employees who specialize in collecting, processing, and communicating information. And since the better you are able to understand, use, and communicate information to others, the more competitive you and your company will be, people with good communicative and language skills, able to provide for a professional translation and accurate communication of information in the proper style are required by man companies.

The Growing Importance of Teamwork
Specific types of organization structures present unique communication challenges. However, as Tom Quelbecson, a professional from a Portland Certified Translation Services company put it, no matter the company structure businesses can rely heavily on teamwork. Irrespective the field you work in, you will undoubtedly find yourself a part of dozens of teams throughout your career. Teams are widely used today, and yet, they’re not always successful. And a key reason for this is poor communication.

Communication flow within an organizational structure through a variety of pathways. Amanda McGreen, a business communication expert and an English to Italian translator, defines two types of organizational communication structure: informal and formal.

Formal communication is defined by the relationships between the various job positions in an organization. It takes place through the formal channels of organizational structure. Messages can flow upward (from a subordinate to a superior), downward (by the manager to the subordinates) and horizontally (between colleagues and peers at the same or similar levels).

Downward communication is best suited for organizations where the line of authority runs distinctly downward. Its main objectives include: to convey executive decisions and transmit work-related information that helps employees do their jobs. Upward communication provides a feedback on how well the organization is functioning as well as on how well the subordinates have understood the downward communication. The professionals from one of the leading Detroit Translation Services Agency believe that it is also an outlet for pent-up emotions – giving employees a chance to raise and speak dissatisfaction issues to their superiors. To summarize, we can say that upward communication provides insight into problems, opportunities, trends and performance- and thus allows executives to solve problems and make intelligent decisions. Horizontal communication facilitates communication between interdependent units and departments to help employees share information, coordinate tasks, and solve various organizational problems. It can also be used for resolving conflicts between departments or within the same department.

Every organization also has informal channels of business communication often referred to as the grapevine. It stretches in all directions irrespective of authority levels, practically encompassing all communication that takes place outside the formal network. Despite its disadvantages – since it contains unverified facts, rumor and unclear data it may harm, rather than help an organization. However, as translators with The Marketing Analysts Translation Services comment, efficient use of informal channels can fortify the formal communication network and every smart manager should make the best possible use of the grapevine.

As a translation services professional, communication skills will be essential to your success. In fact, if one of your priorities is to stand out from your competitors, improving your communication skills may turn out to be one of the most important steps you can take. As, Jamie Sutherland, a HR manager who is also working as a certified translator says, hiring managers often complain about the poor communication skills of the potential employees they interview – especially of recent college graduates who have no experience in a professional business environment. Considering you have learned at college how to write, listen and speak well, if you are also able to communicate effectively depending on the specific business situation, you’ll have a major advantage and you will be a step ahead of your competitors throughout your professional translator career.

Communication is the process of conveying information through an exchange of messages between a sender, an encoder, and a receiver – a decoder. This can be done by speech, visuals, writing, signals or behavior. Effective communication occurs, when the receiver has completely understood the message of the sender, i.e. when he or she gets the exact information or idea that the sender has intended to convey. Effective communication benefits both the sender and the receiver and helps businesses in many ways. Some of these benefits are:

Better decision making based on more complete and reliable information;

Better time management – the faster problem solving takes up less time that can be used for creating solutions;

Identifying potential problems at an earlier stage;

Stronger professional images and closer business relationships;

Higher employee engagement and lower employee turnover;

Better financial results, and other.

As translators with The Marketing Analysts Translation Service in Houston explain, effective communication reinforces the connection between a business and all of its stakeholders, those people, groups or organizations that are affected or can be affected by the actions of the business as a whole: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, creditors, investors, the community, and the government. On the other hand, bad communication breaks down trust, and the consequences can range from waste of time and efforts to failure. So, speaking of communication we always have to bear in mind, that it is a powerful “weapon” that can help you succeed at every stage of your career.

Within any modern day setting, the communications that you translate or interpret can be disrupted by a variety of communication barriers. Some common modern day barriers include sounds and environmental distractions, competing messages, filters, and channel breakdowns:

Sounds and Environmental Distractions. These types of distractions range from hold, cold or stuffy meeting rooms; to cluttered computer desktops with Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and chat messengers open and Microsoft Outlook reminders constantly going off. The common habit of multitasking, attempting more than one task at a time, is practically guaranteed to create communication distractions. Other distractions that Houston Portuguese to English translation workers have identified can be rather personal such as thoughts and emotions that inhibit the target audience members from receiving and processing the information that you deliver.

Competing messages. Getting the complete attention from all of the intended audience members is very challenging and usually impossible. A skilled translator with The Marketing Analysts Translation Services company is ready to avert other messages that interfere with your message.Cell phones, other audience members and even fellow certified translation workers maybe more captivating than the message you deliver and can divert attention.

Filters. Filters can be human or electronic and work to blocked or distort your message.Certain filters, such as spam filters are sometimes unintentional. Even if you are a veteran certified transcript and diploma translation worker, you are likely aware how a structure and culture of certain business clients deter the stream of critical job related details.

Channel breakdowns. There are moments when inherent weaknesses in the communication channel completely fail when delivering your message. A computer that you had planned to complete a translation and e-mail it to your client becomes infected by a virus or the server that you use to host your blog crashes and cuts off access.

As a professional translator, make a special effort to recognize barriers that can creep up and stop your communications from reaching their intended audiences.